Barilla Opens Its New Innovation Center to Drive Food Innovation Worldwide

How can we bring the excellence of Italian culinary tradition into the future? How can we transform everyday products into experiences that surprise the senses, create emotions, and accompany people in moments of pleasure, sharing, and discovery? The answer for Barilla Group is the Barilla Innovation & Technology Experience (BITE) in Parma, marking the company’s most significant investment in food innovation in recent years. With almost 14,000m², more than €20 million invested and an additional €2 million per year dedicated to equipment upgrades, BITE stands as a global hub designed to foster development across the Group’s portfolio. Pasta, sauces, and bakery become a territory of exploration here, where research and technology serve Barilla's passion for good food.

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Rooted in an approach of collaboration with leading international minds, this new Innovation Center brings together a team of 200highly skilled experts, including food technologists, researchers, engineers, designers, professional tasters and chefs, to develop the next generation of Barilla high-quality food products. Each year, 30 young talents from both Italy and abroad join Barilla’s RDQ community through dedicated internship or other post-graduate programs, with interns coming from countries such as Turkey, Belgium, Greece, and Spain over the past two years. The center is also the beating heart of an open innovation ecosystem that already has 84 active collaborations with universities and research centers in Italy and around the world.

“At Barilla, where the product has always been at the heart of everything we do, we know that a fundamental part of our work is to imagine and create quality products that must respond and adapt to people’s evolving needs,” says Guido Barilla, Chairman of the Barilla Group. “The BITE, in addition to shaping what will be the products of tomorrow, represents a very clear entrepreneurial choice. Barilla must drive and anticipate trends and be able to engage with markets that are increasingly more open and international.”

WHERE EVERY STEP OF PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT COMES TO LIFE
Deeply rooted in the heart of the Food Valley where Barilla was born, BITE operates with a global vision: this is where products for all the Group’s brands are developed, bringing the taste of Italy to more than 100 countries. The BITE brings together all stages of food innovation under one roof. Within its 4,800 m², the Innovation Center features dedicated areas for Design Thinking where brainstorms turn into product ideas, tasting and sensory research, and experimental kitchens for pasta and bakery. An additional 9,000 m² of pilot plants host advanced research laboratories and experimental production lines where Barilla’s professionals develop, test and refine new products and processes, together with designing innovative packaging solutions and applying advanced tools to ensure outstanding food quality and safety.

Here, the journey from concept to market takes shape, a process that typically spans around 2 years (and up to 10 for the more complex projects) from researching in the selection of crop varieties and selecting ingredients to recipe development and sensory testing with both expert panels and consumers.

"Innovatingmeans placing people’s desires at the center,” explains Michele Amigoni, Head of RDQ at Barilla Group. “Understanding in depth how their needs related to food and nutrition will evolve, and from there turning ideas into reality that are new, good, and sustainable. The BITE will be a center open to the world, where it will be possible to see, touch, and understand how Barilla envisions the future of food. "

At the BITE, technologies such as the electronic nose and AI-driven smart sensors optimize processes, from mapping aromatic profiles to enhancing pasta drying. 3D printing and holographic design systems enable rapid prototyping and faster development cycles, while the rugosimeter (roughness meter) precisely measures pasta texture at the micron scale, providing valuable data to refine both product quality and the sensory experience. These tools accelerate experimentation and ensure consistency, helping deliver the same Barilla quality to consumers around the world.

COLLABORATING GLOBALLY TO DRIVE INNOVATION
The BITE is the core of an international open innovation network of 84 partnerships with universities, research institutions, and organizations worldwide, from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in Germany to Purdue University in the US and Wageningen University in the Netherlands, as well as with selected agrifood and tech startups.Since 2019, Barilla’s Good Food Makers accelerator has generated over 1,200 startup applications from 41 countries and launched 28 collaborations, ranging from sustainable indoor agriculture to AI-driven logistics and ingredient traceability.

INCLUSIVE AND SUSTAINABLE SPACES
Designed with sustainability and inclusion at its core, the BITE runs on renewable electric energy and is surrounded by research areas dedicated to the development of regenerative agriculture practices. Through a partnership with Dynamo Academy an Italian social enterprise promoting inclusive design, the building features fully accessible environments, tactile maps and flexible spaces, ensuring a welcoming experience for all.

BARILLA INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY EXPERIENCE - NUMBERS

• Investment: over €20 million + €2 million per year for plant upgrades
• Surface area: 13,800 square meters in total (4,800 square meters Innovation Center + 9,000 square meters pilot plants)
• Employment: 200 professionals + 30 young talents per year
• Network: 84 active collaborations with universities and research centers
• Tasting: over 1,000 samples tasted annually by certified experts
• Startup ecosystem: 28 active collaborations, 1,200 applications from 41 countries

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